What Inktober Taught Me

…Wow, it’s literally December already. I have no idea where this year has gone.

Not that RetroGameCon is over and now that I have time, I’d like to recap on my most recent art challenge, #inktober 2017.

If you’re not familiar with Inktober, it’s an online drawing challenge to work on one piece in ink every day in month of October.

Although I couldn’t do every day, and I could only film certain days, I’ve learned a lot from this challenge:

First off, I used this challenge to work on something that’s been a pain to draw, environments. I wanted to draw interiors and things that challenged me to get better at it by the end of the month. My goal was to draw something from life, preferably and environment or interior to get used to perspective and capturing the mood of my surroundings. Even though I was unable to complete the challenge in it’s entirety, now, I can look at a room or an environment, and record what I see. That is critical to becoming an illustrator. Recording and stylizing rooms and environments allow stories to be told and adhere context to those stories.

God, it was painful.

Drawing something I know I’m not good at is an ego breaker. Especially when sharing it online. Sharing these terrible askew drawings of coffee shops and wacky living rooms is.. embarrassing! Plenty of my Inktober drawings aren’t measured correctly, the ceilings are crooked, mismarked walls, the tables wonky, chairs uneven, etc. Believe me, snapping a photo and choosing to upload it where the world can see made me second-guess my ability as an artist.

You Win Some,

You Lose Some..

But then, I became numb.

Towards the middle of Inktober, I stopped caring about the quality of some drawings. I just wanted to start, and get it done. Finished, not perfect. This is great to tame the perfectionist side of myself. I always want to make sure things look perfect, marketable, and desirable for those viewing my work.

You Appreciate the Execution.

One thing I will say is besides being assigned to draw certain things in college, I would have never done a living room or an interior if I had the choice. I would have stuck to my same anthropomorphic characters I know and love. This challenge taught me to appreciate the fact that I did something, anything instead of getting upset when I didn’t do well on my piece.

Participating in this challenge was an eye opener on how much more I need to improve. Just getting up to start, is the hardest hurdle to overcome.

I didn’t get to do all 31 pieces in 31 days, and I sure couldn’t record all of them, but I participated more on inktober this year, than I did the last.